'They Have The Right To Wear Headscarves'.

KUALA LUMPUR: Every Muslim women, like all women in the country, should be treated equally and this include the right to wear headscarves to work.
 Sisters In Islam program manager Suri Kempe said the 'no tudung'-type of employment policy was discriminatory and have no place in a country with diverse cultural and religious background like Malaysia. "This is discrimination against Muslim women.
 Like all women in Malaysia, they have the right to be treated equally," she said when asked to comment on Malaysian Digest's report yesterday on a woman, known as Ira, who faced multiple rejection when applying for a job at several branded stores in KLCC because she wears a headscarf.
 Suri said Muslim women should be allowed to practise their religious belief, including the wearing of headscarf. She also called on the Human Resources Ministry to look closely into Ira's case, and address discriminatory policies against women at the workplace.
 "We should be free from discrimination and prejudice, and no restriction on what a person should and should not wear. This does not apply only to Muslim women, in fact non-Muslims too should be allowed to practise their religious beliefs," she said.
 Suri said cases like Ira's should not have happened because clothes after all does not reflect a person's ability to execute a given task. Independent Islamic preacher Datuk Daud Che Ngah was appaled that such incidents, which he described as discriminatory to Muslim women, still occurred in the country.
 "What have they done wrong and why the need to differentiate someone who wants to adhere to their religious belief?," he said. Daud said companies should respect the country's diversity and described such move as un-Islamic.
 "If they can't respect that then they should not be doing business here," "Although some may say it is company policy, but such move (of not allowing women in headscarf at work) is still discriminatory against Muslim women who are just adhering to their religious belief,"
 "Working, is part of ibadah in Islam but Muslims must also observe to the rules of the religion," Daud said similar issue popped up during the 70s where most Muslim women working in factories in the Klang Valley were not allowed to wear headscarves.
 "Tabung Haji and I spearheaded a discussion with the factory owners and nowadays you can see that most factories, including the foreign owned ones, have allowed the practise. This means they are can be respectful to their Muslim workers." Dewan Muslimat PAS spokeswoman Ustazah Rosiah Salleh however felt the stores' move was not discriminatory.
 "The applicants do have the right to choose and should not use this as an excuse. As a worker, we have to adhere to companies' rules and regulations. If they can't accept women wearing headscarves working for them, then go find soomeplace else to work," she said. She said there were many other job opportunities that are open to women wearing headscarves.
 "This is not discrimination. They still have a choice to gon elsewhere," she said when contacted yesterday. However, Rosiah said employers in an Islamic country like Malaysia should learn to respect women who wears headscarves as it was part of their religious obligations.
 In the meantime, mD's report yesterday received more than 50 comments, most of them condemning the stores for the discriminatory practise. One of them, Manjalara went on to described her own experience when she was applying for a job at a hotel.
 Pak Pandir meanwhile said the policy adopted by the three stores are backward thinking and out of date. He urged the owners to be more open. Yesterday, mD reported that 24-year-old Ira, who was looking for a part-time job as a retail assistant was turned down by several branded retail stores in KLCC for wearing a headscarf.
 She had highlighted her 'predicament' on Facebook and her status update has reached close to 9,000 shares on the social media site. mD went to checked out the stores she mentioned and found out to be true. Meanwhile, Esprit has offered their sincere apologies for the ordeal Ira had gone through.
 "At Esprit, it is our company Code of Conduct to ensure 'equal opportunity in employment' and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind," Esprit PR officer Joyce Wong wrote in a press release, yesterday. Wong wrote, as a global organization, Esprit believes that diversity in their staff is important for the company's success.

 Workers Should Adhere To Dresscode Set By Employer
 THE Malaysian Employers Federation chief Shamsuddin Bardan says dress code at work is under the employer's discretion. The employer, he said, in principle can come up with a dress code of their own and job applicant had accepted the job offer should adhere to it, including rules on the wearing of headscarf.
 "If one is offered a job but unable to follow the dress code, then he or she can always choose not to accept the offer. If they accept it, then they are bound to the company's policy," he said via an email reply yesterday. Shamsudin said although the wearing of headscarf is a religious obligation, the decision lies in the hands of the job applicant whether they could adhere to the company's policy. "It can't be described as diiscrimination because the person still have a choice to accept or refuse the job offer," he said.